Amazon Finally Reveals 3D ‘Fire’ Smartphone

Amazon entered the smartphone business on Wednesday with its ‘Fire’ smartphone, that is coming with an ability of scanning millions of objects instantly. It will come with a 3D, 4.7-inch high-definition display, powered by quad-core 2.2 GHz processor, 2 GB of RAM, and a 13 Megapixel camera available on the AT&T’s network at a price USD 199 for a 32GB model and USD 299 for 64GB model on a two-year contract.

The smartphone also includes unlimited photo storage on Amazon’s Cloud Drive and joins Amazon’s “Fire” line-up of tablets and streaming devices to compete with Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics. The Fire phone has Bluetooth 3.0 for connectivity now and in future it will support Bluetooth LE also.

The Next Web says: The Fire phone is a such a part of the Amazon ecosystem that it has a hardware button to help you add items to your cart. Even AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega joked that he had to keep the phone away from his family so they wouldn’t purchase items with the Fire and OneClick purchasing.

Reuters says: “One of the things that Amazon tried to do with this phone is reduce the amount of activity and input that users have to do to get results,” said Dave Cotter, chief executive of SquareHub, an app that helps families share photos and other information.

“Instead of clicking a whole bunch of stuff, you hold the phone and it does things for you,” said the former Amazon executive, who got his first peek at the phone more than two months ago.

Shares of Amazon climbed 2.7 percent to $334.38 on Wednesday. To sweeten the deal, Amazon offered 12 months of membership to Prime, its two-day delivery and streaming service.

Tech Crunch says: Given that Amazon’s newly announced Fire Phone is largely one gigantic portal for Amazon to sell things (there’s a dedicated hardware button just for recognizing products!), some folks were betting on the device itself being free — or at least really, really cheap.

Alas, no such luck. Based on product pages that have just gone up on AT&T, it looks like the Fire will sell for roughly the same price you’d expect any other phone to go for on a two-year contract. Meanwhile, product pages that have just gone up on Amazon’s own site detail the off-contract prices.

As rumored, AT&T is getting this phone as a carrier exclusive.

Mashable says: It’s a curious omission for Amazon. The company talks a lot about being customer-centric — but with this decision, it seems to have overlooked a very popular trend. In fact, Fitbit Flex is one of Amazon’s best-sellers across departments. In fact, it’s No. 29 on the bestseller list in the entire Health and Personal Care category.

CNN Money says: “Can we build a better phone for our most engaged customers?” asked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos at the event. “Can we build a better phone for Amazon Prime members? Well, I’m excited to tell you that the answer is yes.”